Petrol/Diesel cars

Locally to me there are a handful of charging "bollards" that have been in place for several years. What seems to have been added in the last year or so are adaptations of street light structures to add a charging point in them.

If that could be done in most streets, that would hugely help in the interim.

 

@Farnham_Red 65 plate eGolf on autotrader for £14k, 54k miles.

The eGolf has a range of 130 miles so if your wife is a low mileage user it may be suitable. I guess if she has a Mazda 6 though she might be wanting a larger car?

 

I switched to a short term lease program through work a couple of years ago and I’ve had electric cars quite often as part of that. (Currently not got a car, don’t need one while I’m not going out. My wife still has hers though)

They’re fantastic and the Tesla’s in particular are just a joy to drive. Infrastructure needs improving though. I’d like us to get to a point where ‘charge stations’ actually swap the batteries out and are replaced with ones from a pool. Instant full charge and removes battery degradation worries.

 

I don't pretend to be any kind of expert of the matter, but a variety of commentators would give a compelling argument to counter that point of view. For example, this one (American)



Clearly, the direction of travel in terms of our electricity generating mix is towards greener forms of production, which will further improve the comparison at time goes on because the CO2 cost of running the car drops as the source of the power becomes greener.

Not sure why anyone would want to stick with only using a 3 pin plug to top up their car at home - apart from the fact that it is potentially dangerous to draw a continuous large load on a domestic socket for long periods of time without knowing that your electrics are top drawer (don't even think of doing it with multi socket adaptors and crappy extension leads unless you want to get well acquainted with the local fire station), there is no reason why the vast majority of people who do have driveway access can't have a domestic charger installed that runs at 32a (7.4Kw) - they are currently subsidised by the govt to the tune of £350 and therefore the cheapest of them are only a few hundred quid fitted. If you don't want a dedicated off the shelf charger, you can even just get a sparky to install a 32a commando socket and buy a commando charger lead and run it from that.

Again, I am no expert, but haven't the scientists been trying to crack the efficient extraction of Hydrogen for longer than my lifetime without success. There is a place for Hydrogen for sure, in larger forms of transport (trucks, even ships / planes), but domestic cars, not sure. There is probably a good reason why the only manufacturer even still trying is Toyota. We can't wait forever on the promise that the scientists will overcome physics.

 

Can I just say that I have the 'slow' M3 which in standard driving mode is just ridiculous, 5 secs 0-60 and the acceleration is there instantly. It is a joy to get around all the tractors on the A17 when I'm on my trips to Long Sutton. But every EV has instant response and acceleration, not all as quick as the Tesla but all quite responsive.

 

I had a model X for a few months a year or so ago. The best way I can describe it is that there’s just no acceleration. It’s just instantly up to speed, or so it seems.

Just too wide for British roads, unfortunately, in my experience.

 

During the first lock down demand was very low and fuel prices went through the floor

 

If she's dropping through the floor, she could go fred flinstone style!!! That would be environmentally friendly! ;-)

 

If the driverless car broke down or got stuck in traffic or snow I’d still want them all bar the jump leads. It doesn’t have a driver, it’s not invincible.

 

My colleague has it at the moment as her car had a flat battery on Friday. I need to get it back actually, I’ll ask after I finish my lunch.

 

Fair enough on lifecycle but 7kW charging might be Ok in UK but in vast swathes of rural Italy the standard supply for a property is 3KW. You can then add more for an additional standard charge per kW (we opted to have have 6kW) but the supply is a bit hit and miss. Brownouts are quite common. We originally considered a heat pump when restoring house but the calculations showed the startup current of the compressor was high ( around 11k). Even now, if we turn on the oven microwave and a single induction hob simultaneously the lights dim noticeably. The pump used to maintain the water pressure is it 0.75kW but the lights do dim momentarily when it kicks in if you flush the loo or turn on a tap. Given these circumstances I think even with a 10kW supply a 7kW charger would be an issue and the distribution infrastructure would need millions spending on it to upgrade.

 

Broughty Ferry to Faslane is over 100 miles!

 

Agree - my car is a much more modest Kia Soul. 12 grand or so cheaper than the cheapest Tesla, but still like sh.it off a stick in sport mode - put your foot down and it just goes. Fastest car I have ever had. My 0-60 is something like 7.5s I believe, but the thing that you don't appreciate until you try it is the instant torque, so there is no delay while waiting for the turbo to respond, it is instant go. Leaves any ICE car dead at the lights - its great fun. You have to be very careful when putting your foot down on a bend, so as to not to torque steer yourself into the ditch.

 

95% of all car journeys are less than 25 miles.

For the 2 over 100 miles then you will have to adapt that's for certain - stopping and having a proper lunch break will become a thing I reckon, maybe some decent restaurants will open up on motorways.

 

Surely the gag here will be Hybrids?

As far as i can see Hybrids will be allowed, so therefore still be using petrol and we will all still be using them in 100 years probably.

 

TT I feel for your supply capacity issue but you have the advantage of living in rural Italy so beat us all in reality. Plus with most charging operating in the off peak hours between 1am and 5 am I'm sure you'd cope if you need to.

PR I think hybrids are allowed to be sold until 2035, unless that is a planned deadline rather than the announced deadline.